In a Car vs. On a Train

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Jeremy from Milton, Florida.

Hey, Jeremy.

Welcome to the show. How can we help?

Well, I had a question about two words.

Let’s say that you were going to go on a trip, and you would normally say, I went there by plane or by car, or I flew on a plane, on a train, but you wouldn’t say on a car. You would say in a car. Why is there a distinction between in a car but not in a plane or you wouldn’t say on a car?

I have a general guideline, a general rule for why we do this. Do you want to hear it? And it’s about feelings. We all just kind of notice that we feel that on a train is correct but in a car is correct. It’s a native speaker’s intuition that we’re working with here. And it has to do about whether or not we feel like we’re being enclosed or whether or not we feel like we’re standing or sitting on a platform or a floor or some kind of long, long surface that contains other people or contains other things.

And we can work down all the different kinds of transportation from small to large and start to notice that there’s a pretty good consistency there about whether or not we feel enclosed or whether or not we feel like we’re on a platform or floor or some other kind of surface.

For example, bicycles and motorcycles, scooters were on them. Skateboards were on them, right? We’re not in them because there’s no enclosure whatsoever. We’re on a sled. Yeah, we’re on a sled. But you’re in cars because the enclosure is the salient feature. That’s the thing about a car. And also, in a car, you’re kind of like fixed in your seat, maybe even seat belted in, and there’s not this freedom to move about back and forth across the space like you would you have on a train, on a ship, on a plane.

Trains are really interesting because I can be on a train, but I’m in the sleeper car. Right. Or I’m in my cabin or I’m in the caboose, but I’m on the train because I don’t feel quite as enclosed as I do in these smaller spaces. And I feel the freedom to move about, to move back and forth.

Yeah. I’m thinking historically, too, the precursors of cars. I mean, you might say my ancestors came to California in a Conestoga wagon. Yeah. Right. But if you say that they came on a wagon, you might imagine there was no covering and there was no enclosure, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I didn’t start thinking about that until years ago. I was teaching English in Japan. And, you know, you never think about the language as much as when you’re trying to teach it to somebody. Oh, absolutely. And they’re asking you all these questions. And that just happened to be one of the numerous questions that kind of threw me for a loop for a second. I was like, I don’t know, why do we say it that way?

Let me ask you about another class of things, vessels that go on the water. So you would be on a raft, right? Right. But for a canoe, a dinghy, or a kayak, what would you be? Yeah, I guess you’d be in a canoe because you’re somewhat enclosed, I guess. Or you’d be upon, a sit-upon. Yeah, but there’s not the freedom to move about. That’s the thing. Once you’re on, once the vessel in you become a unit, you’re not free to move about.

Let me ask you about a yacht. Are you in a yacht or on a yacht? Does it matter if you’re below deck? Yeah, if you’re below deck, I guess you would be… Actually, I would always say on a yacht. I think I would too. Like you said, if you’ve had the freedom of movement, you can move around.

Yeah, that’s a really good point. Yeah, so do you feel the freedom to move about upon some kind of platform, and do you feel in close? Again, feelings. At the bottom of language, a lot of times, is this relationship to the connotations of the experience, and not necessarily about a perfect logic.

Right. Okay. Well, that would have been a good answer for those students in Japan. That was a spectacular answer. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Jeremy. Take care now.

You too. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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